The WTO in its annual report urged members to reform global trade rules or face trade fragmentation that would sharply reduce output and hit poorer countries hardest. WTO economists modeled a split world of competing geopolitical blocs and found global GDP would be 5.1% lower and exports 18.6% smaller by 2050. A more severe scenario—multilateral cooperation collapsing and being replaced by piecemeal free-trade deals—would cut global GDP by 6.9% and exports by nearly 27% by 2050. By contrast, str

The WTO in its annual report urged members to reform global trade rules or face trade fragmentation that would sharply reduce output and hit poorer countries hardest. WTO economists modeled a split world of competing geopolitical blocs and found global GDP would be 5.1% lower and exports 18.6% smaller by 2050. A more severe scenario—multilateral cooperation collapsing and being replaced by piecemeal free-trade deals—would cut global GDP by 6.9% and exports by nearly 27% by 2050. By contrast, stronger multilateral cooperation would raise global GDP by 2.9% and boost exports by almost 18%. The report said least-developed countries would gain most from tighter cooperation but suffer the largest losses from fragmentation.